FIG. 1 depicts a side view of a conventional magnetic recording head 10. The magnetic recording head 10 may be a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head. The conventional magnetic recording head 10 includes a read transducer 12 and a write transducer 20. The conventional read transducer 12 includes shields 14 and 18 and sensor 16. The read sensor 16 is typically a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor or tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) sensor. The write transducer 20 includes a first, or return, pole 22, coils 24 and 32, back gap 26, auxiliary poles 28, main pole 30 and shield 34. Although not shown, the main pole 30 may have leading and/or trailing edge bevels. In such cases, the main pole 30 is shortest in the down track direction at the ABS.
Although the conventional magnetic recording head 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the trend in magnetic recording toward higher recording densities and, therefore, smaller track widths and bit lengths. The conventional magnetic recording head 10 may not perform sufficiently at higher recording densities and higher recording speeds. For example, the main pole may not have sufficiently fast reversals in magnetic flux unless the pole is shrunk. If the pole is shrunk, then the same current through the coils 24 and 32 may result in increased wide area track erasure (WATER) issues. Such an increase in erasure issues is undesirable. Using fewer turns in the coils 24 and/or 32 may mitigate WATER issues, but slows the reversals in magnetic flux. Thus, performance of the magnetic transducer 10 again may suffer. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording head, particularly for higher recording densities.